


in this reality...

by cloverdale



Series: under an arizona sky [1]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: F/F, M/M, Prologue
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-04
Updated: 2019-01-04
Packaged: 2019-10-03 22:31:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 683
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17292674
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cloverdale/pseuds/cloverdale
Summary: There is a reality where a boy from Cuba falls in love with a ten thousand year-old alien princess from who sacrifices herself to save the universe. There is a reality where the Champion, the Guardian of the Sky, loved a boy who died while he was away at war. There is a reality where the Guardian of the Forests knew a childhood free of death, where the Guardian of Fire had no family to leave behind.This is not that reality.They are not so different, but they are not the same.





	in this reality...

There is a reality where a boy from Cuba falls in love with a ten thousand year-old alien princess from who sacrifices herself to save the universe. There is a reality where the Champion, the Guardian of the Sky, loved a boy who died while he was away at war. There is a reality where there Guardian of the Forests knew a childhood free of death, where the Guardian of Fire had no family to leave behind.

This is not that reality.

They are not so different, but they are not the same.

In this reality, an eleven-year-old boy named Leonardo Marín Zúñiga travels from Cárdenas, Cuba, where he has spent his whole life, to attend the UNASA Garrison Arizona, like his sister before him. He wears the orange and white uniform with pride, and he’s the best pilot in his class.

His roommate is Iosefa Timyas Auva’a, who goes by Joseph, who has travelled across the oceans from the UNASA Garrison in Hilo, Hawai’i, where he has lived since Analyn and Masina Auva’a adopted in form Samoa when he was three years old. He has a sister already in Arizona, Malia Auva’a, who is immediately assigned to the Kerberos Project after graduating.

He spends his fifteenth birthday on a plane with his sister, a month before school starts. Everyone comes back early that year—the Kerberos Project is complete.

The ship is called the  _Heracles_ , and it’s the most beautiful thing Leo has ever seen. There are three logos printed on her side—UNASA, the UNASA Garrison, and the Kogane Institute. Smaller, are seventy-six flags beneath the flag of Earth, one for each of the nations who had people who worked on the Kerberos Project.

It’s all everyone’s been talking about. Praises of the Kogane family of the Kogane Institute—Alexander Kogane, the eldest of the next generation, twenty-four years old and the world’s best pilot, his cousin Matthew Kogane, who finished medical school at eighteen, Samuel Kogane, Matthew’s father and the mission’s commander, his wife Rosabelle, chief science officer, and their daughter Kate Kogane, Leo’s age, one of the project’s programmer.

It’s one hell of a family, Leo thinks. He, like the rest of the world, is in love with them. They’re living the dream.

Joseph gets his hands on a poster of them—Alexander, Matthew, Samuel and Rosabelle—and somehow, gets it signed. Everyone’s got their favourite—Leo’s hero is Alexander, but Joseph’s is Kate.

There’s a parade on launch day, and he and Joseph march in it. Joseph spends the entire time trying to meet Kate Kogane—they say she marches baritone—but they don’t see her.

A month later, they meet another Kogane. His name is Keith, although the nametag on his uniform says  _Kogane, C_., and of course he’s a better pilot than Leo. Leo’s disappointed—he was supposed get moved to fighter pilot, but Keith Kogane takes his place.

Joseph and Leo have always had just them in their room, but their dorms are built for three. Keith Kogane moves into their room.

And they bicker. It irritates Joseph to no end, but Leo can’t seem to start a conversation with him any other way. Leo complains that Keith’s corner of the room is too neat, and Keith makes fun of him for the autographed poster of his family.

They get the news a year later.

The Kerberos Mission has failed. They reached Kerberos, but the  _Heracles_  was destroyed. Pilot error, they say.

Keith always had a temper, but he never got into actual fights. Making fun of him becomes less fun. He starts fights with their flight instructor almost every class.

Keith Kogane gets expelled.

Leonardo Marín Zúñiga becomes a fighter pilot.

Three months later, he’s assigned a new comms officer. She’s a transfer from the San Francisco School of Science and Technology.

Her name’s Eleanor Hiroshi, and he doesn’t realize it, but when he makes fun of her, she laughs with Keith’s smile.

That’s where it starts, where the legend begins.

These realities, they’re not so different.

The legend begins under an Arizona sky.

**Author's Note:**

> hey yall! this is the prologue for my vld series 'under an arizona sky.'
> 
> check me out on tumblr @broqanes


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